I am not the biggest lover of the horror genre; however, I have to give credit to Tatiana Schlote-Bonne for giving The Mean Ones such an enticing story that I couldn’t put the novel down. This novel explores how a traumatic past can still hang over someone’s life years later. Grappling with murder, anxiety, tumultuous relationships with her mother and boyfriend, and the demon-worshiping cult that led to the murders. This novel grapples with the anxiety of being a survivor while also maintaining the secrets of living as a survivor. This story deals less with what actually happened the night of her best friend’s murders, but more of what it is like to live as a survivor.  Fans of the Supernatural T.V. series may find this novel appealing as it feels like the author is paying a small homage to the series by saying, “ Allie’s on the ceiling, her back against it like she’s lying on a bed, her long hair hanging around her face” (Schlote-Bonne 4), which is similar to the way the Winchester brothers’ mom was murdered. 

 Sadie, or Sabrina, shows how her everyday life has been affected by the murders of her “best friends” Allie and Blakely. The murders that she was in the room for, hiding under the bed just next to where they took place, haunt her. She experiences visions of her dead friends daily but tries to hide it from her boyfriend, Lucas, and her friend, Heather. This narrative is explored through alternating timelines–exploring the past at the summer camp where her friends were brutally murdered, and the present day where she is dealing with the visions of her dead friends as well as a voice in her head that she has named “Damon.” 

This is structured by alternating chapters between 2006, when the murders took place, and 2023, where Sadie goes on a weekend trip in a cabin with Lucas, his best friend Eli, and his wife Heather. While this structure gives insight into the many anxieties that Sadie faces like, “There was no way I was going to squat bare-butt in grass, inviting bugs to crawl up in me to devour my insides” (Schlote-Bonne 76-7), which shows the extent of this anxiety, it also may not be for everyone given that each chapter switches to further this dual narrative. The anxieties that she faces also come through her daily activities through second guessing her reality, “ A joy of panic hits me: what if I’m still high from the DMT” (Schlote-Bonne 148). 

Schlote-Bonne also relies heavily on descriptions, rather than dialogue which we see very little of. These descriptions are captivating but also often off-putting such as, “Millions of bacteria lived in our mouths, eating away at our gums and if given enough time, they would eat all the way through your gums and up through your brain” (Schlote-Bonne 132).  The descriptions that Schlote-Bonne provides throughout the entire novel often create discomfort in the reader that I feel Sadie also experiences in her day to day life with the visions that she sees. 

The novel also portrays the real-world way that the friendships amongst young girls works in a trio. Which is often that one girl holds status, usually in popularity, over the others, which makes her malicious towards one girl in the group. This is portrayed through the friendships of Allie, Blakely, and, at the time Sabrina, when Sabrina says, “I cringed remembering how last time Allie had made fun of my hairy arms… I ran the razor down my arm…” (Schlote-Bonne 155). This is the reality of many friendships amongst young girls, which the author does a satisfactory job of depicting through this novel. The friendship between Sabrina and Allie can be described as very turbulent when Allie kisses the boy, Jesse, who Sabrina likes, or when Allie and Blakely place syrup in Sabrina’s bed, attracting many bugs. 

Overall, this novel is captivating, as it sends the reader into the dark mindset of Sadie who sees visions of her best friends that therapists claim is just a PTSD response. This horror novel explores the macabre night in the woods that Sabrina experiences, but also the anxiety that Sadie faces seventeen years later as an adult. Tatiana Schlote-Bonne details the life of Sadie as a survivor. 

Works Cited

Schlote-Bonne, Tatiana. The Mean Ones. Creature Publishing, 2025.